Four Arabidopsis AREB/ABF transcription factors function predominantly in gene expression downstream of SnRK2 kinases in abscisic acid signalling in response to osmotic stress.

ABSTRACT: Under osmotic stress conditions such as drought and high salinity, the plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays important roles in stress-responsive gene expression mainly through three bZIP transcription factors, AREB1/ABF2, AREB2/ABF4 and ABF3, which are activated by SNF1-related kinase 2s (SnRK2s) such as SRK2D/SnRK2.2, SRK2E/SnRK2.6 and SRK2I/SnRK2.3 (SRK2D/E/I). However, since the three AREB/ABFs are crucial, but not exclusive, for the SnRK2-mediated gene expression, transcriptional pathways governed by SRK2D/E/I are not fully understood. Here, we show that a bZIP transcription factor, ABF1, is a functional homolog of AREB1, AREB2 and ABF3 in ABA-dependent gene expression in Arabidopsis. Despite lower expression levels of ABF1 than those of the three AREB/ABFs, the areb1 areb2 abf3 abf

SUBMITTER: Yoshida T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4302978 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature